Sabrina Gschwandtner

Last updated

Sabrina Gschwandtner
Born1977 (1977)
Washington, D.C.
Known fortextiles, film
Website sabrinag.com

Sabrina Gschwandtner (born 1977) is an American artist currently living in Los Angeles, California. She has held numerous showings of her work throughout the country and several pieces have been acquired by museums, including LACMA, the Walker Art Center, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, [1] the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, [2] and the RISD Museum, [3] among others.

Contents

Biography

Sabrina Gschwandtner was born in 1977 in Washington, DC. [1] She studied at the Sommerakademie für Bildende Kunst  [ de ] in Salzburg, Austria under the direction of Valie Export and also with Vlada Petric, founder of the Harvard Film Archive. [4] She earned a Bachelor of Arts with honors in art/semiotics from Brown University in 2000 and in 2008 she received her Master of Fine Arts from Bard College. [5] She is the author of the book Knitknit : Profiles + Projects from Knitting's New Wave. [6]

Artworks and techniques

Gschwandtner uses film, video, photography, and textiles as her mediums. She sews together filmstrips to create a quilt-like textile. She often installs her work in front of LED lights. This allows viewers to see through the filmstrips when the work is examined closely. [7] She began sewing filmstrips together in 2009 [8] when a friend supplied her with 16 mm films from the Anthology Film Archives that were no longer is use at the Fashion Institute of Technology. The film used by Gschwandtner varies largely in its subject matter. The documentaries range from art centered subjects to those of feminism, and even scientific references. However, most film strips are from the 1950s to the 1980s. [5] Many of the short documentary films recognized and admired women's role in craft making, such as knitting, crocheting, and fabric dyeing. [9] After she watches the films, she cuts and sews them together in patterns that resemble popular American quilt motifs. [5] She has made several works in a "crazy quilt" pattern. [10] Leah Ollman of the LA Times wrote in a 2017 review: "Gschwandtner unites the strips in traditional quilt patterns — interlocking triangles and diamonds set within squares, energetic designs that play surface against depth, control against abandon. She makes astute use of color, mixing vivid stretches of jade, yellow and cerulean with the faded hues of old footage, all accented with black countdown leader and lengths of toned emptiness." [11] Gschwandtner uses quilts because their significance is quite expansive. These works address the nature of what many label as women's work (craft) to be undervalued and overlooked. [12] Film Archivist Andrew Lampert reflects upon the ways Gschwandtner's work has a clear effect of expanding the general understanding of film editing. By combining two often separate mediums, Gschwandtner has redefined the way narrative exists and the nature of using images in works. [13]

Sabrina Gschwandtner, Fibers and Civilization, 2009, 16 mm film and polyamide thread Sabrina Gschwandtner Fibers and Civilization Washington DC 121021.jpg
Sabrina Gschwandtner, Fibers and Civilization, 2009, 16 mm film and polyamide thread

Other works include films and installations for specific sites. For example, Gschwandtner created "Crochet Film" (2004) specifically for a show "Group Loop," put together by Christoph Cox about repetition and cycles. Her piece featured two loops, one, a film of the artist crocheting and the other a crocheted piece representing a film loop. [14] Another series of work on the same theme is "The History of String." In this series Gschwandtner draws many comparisons between the work of more modern sewing machines and older film projectors. By utilizing newer techniques and older technology, she creates a more expansive understanding of the art forms of both textile and film. [15] Her work addresses many topics and uniquely works to combine two differing forms of artistic expression. Her work often combines these multiple mediums to form a message, often of female empowerment in craft. Gschwandtner redefines craft in textiles and the art of filmmaking by bringing these elements together into a professional art scene.

Collections and exhibitions

Gschwandtner's work has been exhibited worldwide at institutions, such as the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington D.C.), [16] the Museum of Arts and Design (New York), [17] Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art (Arkansas), and the Victoria and Albert Museum (London). Her work is in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, [18] Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, [2] the RISD Museum, [3] LACMA, [19] Walker Art Center, and the Carl & Marilynn Thoma Art Foundation. [20]

Related Research Articles

A crochet hook is an implement used to make loops in thread or yarn and to interlock them into crochet stitches. It is a round shaft pointed on one end, with a lateral groove behind it. The point eases the insertion of the hook through the material being crocheted and the groove makes it possible to pull a loop back through the material. The shaft is then divided into a working area that determines the hook's nominal diameter and ensures the uniform sizing of the loops formed on it, and a handle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Walker Phillips</span> American textile artist (1923–2007)

Mary Walker Phillips, was an American textile artist, author and educator. She revolutionized the craft of hand knitting by exploring knitting as an independent art form. Her hand-knit tapestries and other creative pieces are exhibited in museums in the U.S. and Europe. She was honored as a fellow by the American Craft Council (ACC) in 1978.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">UK Hand Knitting Association</span>

The UK Hand Knitting Association (UKHKA) is a not-for-profit British organisation dedicated to promoting hand knitting in the UK. Through a variety of initiatives and the assistance of a nationwide network of volunteers who pass on their skills, the UKHKA focus on ensuring a vibrant future for all aspects of yarn crafts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mathematics and fiber arts</span> Ideas from Mathematics have been used as inspiration for fiber arts

Ideas from mathematics have been used as inspiration for fiber arts including quilt making, knitting, cross-stitch, crochet, embroidery and weaving. A wide range of mathematical concepts have been used as inspiration including topology, graph theory, number theory and algebra. Some techniques such as counted-thread embroidery are naturally geometrical; other kinds of textile provide a ready means for the colorful physical expression of mathematical concepts.

Arline Fisch is an American artist and educator. She is known for her work as a metalsmith and jeweler, pioneering the use of textile processes from crochet, knitting, plaiting, and weaving in her work in metal. She developed groundbreaking techniques for incorporating metal wire and other materials into her jewelry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Olek (artist)</span> Polish-born artist, born 1978

Agata Oleksiak, known as Olek, is a Polish artist who is based in New York City. Their works include sculptures, installations such as crocheted bicycles, inflatables, performance pieces, and fiber art. They have covered buildings, sculptures, people, and an apartment with crochet and have exhibited in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Brazil, Turkey, France, Italy, Poland, and Costa Rica.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Katherine Westphal</span> Textile artist from Los Angeles, California, USA

Katherine Westphal was an American textile designer and fiber artist who helped to establish quilting as a fine art form.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gladys-Marie Fry</span> American art historian and educator

Gladys-Marie Fry was Professor Emerita of Folklore and English at the University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, and a leading authority on African American textiles. Fry earned her bachelor's and master's degrees from Howard University and her Ph.D. from Indiana University. She is the author of Stitched From the Soul: Slave Quilting in the Ante-Bellum South and Night Riders in Black Folk History. A contributor or author to 8 museum catalogs, Fry is also the author of a number of articles and book chapters. Fry has also served as the curator for 11 museum exhibitions and consultant to exhibits and television programs around the nation.

Linda MacDonald was born in 1946, in Berkeley, California. She is a multimedia artist who was at the forefront of the studio quilt art movements. She has been called a "fine artist [who works] with quilting techniques."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joyce J. Scott</span> African-American artist

Joyce J. Scott is an African-American artist, sculptor, quilter, performance artist, installation artist, print-maker, lecturer and educator. Named a MacArthur Fellow in 2016, and a Smithsonian Visionary Artist in 2019, Scott is best known for her figurative sculptures and jewelry using free form, off-loom beadweaving techniques, similar to a peyote stitch. Each piece is often constructed using thousands of glass seed beads or pony beads, and sometimes other found objects or materials such as glass, quilting and leather. In 2018, she was hailed for working in new medium — a mixture of soil, clay, straw, and cement — for a sculpture meant to disintegrate and return to the earth. Scott is influenced by a variety of diverse cultures, including Native American and African traditions, Mexican, Czech, and Russian beadwork, illustration and comic books, and pop culture.

Cynthia Schira is an American textile artist and former university professor. Her work is represented in the collections of many major public museums.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sophie Tatum LaCroix</span> American artist, writer (1862–1949)

Sophie Tatum LaCroix was an American handcrafts designer, editor and author of 18 books on crochet, tatting, beadwork, quilting, needlework and embroidery in the early 1900s.

Cat Mazza is an American textile artist. Her practice combines tactical media, activism, craft-based art making and animation in a form that has frequently been described as craftivism. She is the founder of the craftivist collective microRevolt. Mazza is an associate professor of art at the University of Massachusetts Boston.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lia Cook</span> American artist

Lia Cook is an American fiber artist noted for her work combining weaving with photography, painting, and digital technology. She lives and works in Berkeley, California, and is known for her weavings which expanded the traditional boundaries of textile arts. She has been a professor at California College of the Arts since 1976.

L.J. Roberts is an American textile artist. Roberts, who is genderqueer and uses singular they pronouns, explores queer and feminist politics in their work.

Liz Collins is an American contemporary artist and designer. Collins is recognized for her artwork involving fabric, knitwear, and textiles as well as for the fashion label she developed. She has expertise in textile media including the transition of fabric into multi-dimensional forms as a method to vary the scale of her pieces to make them architectural and inviting rather than object-based. Collins is based in Brooklyn, New York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Tempestry Project</span> Arts project promoting climate change awareness

The Tempestry Project is a collaborative fiber arts project that presents global warming data in visual form through knitted or crocheted artwork. The project is part of a larger "data art" movement and the developing field of climate change art, which seeks to exploit the human tendency to value personal experience over data by creating accessible experiential representations of the data.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Consuelo Jimenez Underwood</span> Mexican-American textile artist

Consuelo Jiménez Underwood is an American fiber artist, known for her pieces that focus on immigration issues. She is an indigenous Chicana currently based in Cupertino, California. As an artist she works with textiles in attempt to unify her American roots with her Mexican Indigenous ones, along with trying to convey the same for other multicultural people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lillian Wolock Elliott</span> American textile artist

Lillian Wolock Elliott was an American fiber artist, and textile designer. She is known for her innovative basket craft.

Sharon Kerry-Harlan is an African-American artist active in Hollywood, Florida and Wauwatosa, Wisconsin who is known for her textile art.

References

  1. 1 2 "Fibers and Civilization (1959)". Washington, DC: Smithsonian American Art Museum. 2009. Retrieved November 20, 2015.
  2. 1 2 "Camouflage". MFA Boston. 2012. Retrieved March 3, 2024.
  3. 1 2 "The Enchanted Loom (Part II)". risdmuseum.org. RISD Museum. Retrieved March 3, 2024.
  4. ↑ Mathey, Carole (August 14, 2006). "Exhibitions Spring 2006: The Workmanship of Risk". Canton, New York: St. Lawrence University. Archived from the original on September 16, 2015. Retrieved November 20, 2015.
  5. 1 2 3 "Sabrina Gschwandtner: Sunshine and Shadow". Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Philadelphia Art Alliance. May 17, 2013. Archived from the original on November 30, 2015. Retrieved November 20, 2015.
  6. ↑ Gschwandtner, Sabrina (January 1, 2007). Knitknit: profiles + projects from knitting's new wave . New York: Stewart, Tabori & Chang. ISBN   978-1584796312.
  7. ↑ Abatemarco, Michael (July 31, 2015). "Algorithm and hues: Digital works at Art House". Santa Fe New Mexican. Retrieved March 3, 2024.
  8. ↑ "Interview: Sabrina Gschwandtner". Tack. January 14, 2014. Archived from the original on September 19, 2015. Retrieved November 23, 2015.
  9. ↑ O'Steen, Danielle (July 23, 2012). "'40 under 40: Craft Futures' at the Renwick Gallery". The Washington Post. Retrieved March 3, 2024.
  10. ↑ Peterson, Jennifer. "Sabrina Gschwandtner at Shoshana Wayne Gallery". artforum.com. Archived from the original on August 15, 2017. Retrieved August 14, 2017.
  11. ↑ Ollman, Leah (June 30, 2017). "Her quilts are made of 16-mm film. Here's what they reveal, frame by frame". Los Angeles Times. ISSN   0458-3035 . Retrieved March 3, 2024.
  12. ↑ Wood, Eve (July 5, 2017). "Shoshana Wayne Gallery: : Sabrina Gschwandtner". Artillery Magazine. Retrieved March 3, 2024.
  13. ↑ Lampert, Andrew (December 19, 2013). "Sabrina Gschwandtner". Bomb . Retrieved March 3, 2024.
  14. ↑ Grundberg, Andy (March 20, 2005). "'Loop': What Goes Around . . ". The Washington Post. Washington, DC. Retrieved March 3, 2024.
  15. ↑ Rosenberg, Karen (December 28, 2007). "Needling More Than the Feminist Consciousness". The New York Times. Retrieved March 3, 2024.
  16. ↑ O'Steen, Danielle (July 24, 2012). "Pushing Craft into Art's Realm". Washington Post. Archived from the original on February 20, 2016. Retrieved November 18, 2015– via highbeam.com.
  17. ↑ Austin, April (February 16, 2007). "The fine art of crafts; A landmark exhibition at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York tackles surprising contemporary issues". Christian Science Monitor. Archived from the original on February 20, 2016. Retrieved November 18, 2015.
  18. ↑ "Sabrina Gschwandtner". Smithsonian American Art Museum. Retrieved March 3, 2024.
  19. ↑ "2020 DA² Acquisitions". Unframed. LACMA. September 2, 2020. Retrieved March 3, 2024.
  20. ↑ "Sabrina Gschwandtner: Camouflage II". Carl & Marilynn Thoma Art Foundation. Retrieved March 3, 2024.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.